


Climbing Up The Walls

by frenchpirate (Whiskey_n_speed)



Category: Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Halloween, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-19
Updated: 2013-12-01
Packaged: 2017-12-29 20:57:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 4
Words: 19,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1010018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Whiskey_n_speed/pseuds/frenchpirate
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was a complete coincidence that Mikey met Pete Wentz in the first place, and it was sort of an accident that they became friends. Featuring a timeless diner, a haunted house, a homicidal cat (according to Pete at least) and some really stupid mistakes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. I've Got The Smell Of A Local Man, Who's Got The Loneliest Feeling

It mostly happened because he was past the point of really caring. He was tired and exhausted though he hadn’t really done anything that should exhaust him the slightest. The rain was pouring outside, lightly hitting the kitchen window next to him, like a steady drumbeat that would have a calming effect on anyone who knew that they weren’t on their way out in it. 

There was a steaming mug of coffee on the table in front of him, his bony fingers wrapped protectively around it, as if someone would appear out of thin air and steal it from him any moment now, though he was alone in the house and hardly anyone would lower themselves to stealing an indifferent teenagers only source of power on mornings like these. It was almost October. 

His jacket was slouched on the chair across from him, almost the same way he was slouched over the table, waiting for the clock above the fridge to get close enough to 8 that it was reasonable for him to leave. He didn’t really want to leave. On the other hand there was no point in staying home. There wasn’t anything to do here besides lying in his bed feeling sorry for himself, and he knew how that’d go. He might as well pull himself out of the cobweb that was his house, dragging him in and clinging to him, making it hard for him to do anything besides sitting at home wasting away. It had been this way for about three months now. 

Since Gerard left. Which was roughly three months ago. He knew he should be happy on behalf of his brother; he was out of high school that had been a toxic place for him to be, actually heading for the only career that seemed reasonable for him and being around people more like him. And he _was_ happy on behalf of him, he knew how Gerard beamed like a little star every time he saw him. An unwashed, greasy and dorky star, but none the less a star. 

The apathy probably came out of envy. Mikey wished that there was something in his life that gave him reason to beam like that, and there just wasn’t when he was a sophomore semi-loser whose glasses were too big for his face and who spent all his time trying to imitate the wallpaper and stay completely invisible. 

The invisible thing worked pretty well, he had avoided most kinds of bullying most of his life, unlike Gerard whose chameleon-abilities were below zero. Which was mainly why it was such a nice thing that he’d left for art college. It was just that Mikey subconsciously felt incredibly left behind. 

He had spent most of his time with Gerard, and maybe he wasn’t the ideal role model but Mikey had thought he was kind of cool in his own way. A lot of people just didn’t notice because they were busy shoving him and calling him names. But Mikey noticed his brothers own sense of cool. Mikey noticed a lot of things, he’d always done that. It came automatically with the whole being invisible thing. He listened and he saw.

 

He managed to procrastinate getting out the door for so long that he was actually late for school, even though he had been awake at a reasonable hour and ready to leave for at least half an hour before he needed to, just sitting by himself drowning in countless mugs of instant coffee. That was how he spent most of his morning, if he didn’t sleep in and made himself at least an hour late. What a way to be alive.

 

He dumped himself down in the chair next to Alicia, didn’t say anything, didn’t need to either. The teacher had given him the stink-eye for entering the classroom quietly about ten minutes later than everyone else, trying to be as stealthy as possible while fishing his book out of his backpack, only to realize he’d left it at home. He had attempted some kind of studying last night and it had resulted in his trig book now lying wide open on his bed in his room. He didn’t really bother to think more of it; it was just a small nuisance that the teacher probably cared a lot more about than he did.

 

He spent lunch with Alicia, like he always did on the days where she didn’t have either PE or music class while he had lunch break, which was most of them. They spent a lot of time together, mainly since she was close to the only person in school who he actually liked being around. 

She was strange, though not as much of a loser as him. That probably grew from the fact that she was good looking, knew how to play a few instruments and didn’t hesitate calling people out on their bullshit. Sometimes Mikey wished that Gerard had had his own version of Alicia when he was in high school. It kind of made things easier, for him at least. She was mild and caring most of the time but as soon as someone tried shoving her or calling her a dyke because of her haircut or her denim vest, she turned into some kind of fearless lioness that even Mikey was slightly scared of. He kind of admired her too. 

For whatever reason she’d decided to befriend him last year when they were both freshmen, probably because they liked some of the same stuff and he’d said he wanted to learn how to play guitar, though she had never gotten around to actually teaching him. They never did a lot when they hung out. They mostly just sat around and occasionally discussed whatever might seem important in that instant. 

At some point they had also tried making out, and though it had seemed completely obvious that they were going to end up there no matter what, it just didn’t feel right, and then they’d stopped doing that and continued their quiet and calm form of friendship. 

She also didn’t ask a lot of questions, didn’t talk very much about everyone else, and Mikey didn’t ask her in return. They both had their secrets, and though she could probably easy figure most of his out because she was just like that, she never mentioned it. Besides the common taste in movies and bands, that was probably the foundation of their friendship. There wasn’t always a need for conversation.

 

That night he was home alone, again. His mom was working overtime at the restaurant where she took night shifts to pay both rent and college loans. He thought about sneaking out, but he didn’t really have anywhere to go. Alicia had band practice tonight so she wasn’t home, and he didn’t really know anyone else well enough to come knocking at their bedroom windows at night. So he stayed in his room.

♢

Mikey spent a lot of nights awake. He would’ve spent all the sleepless time drawing or writing if he could, but all the way from their earliest years, it was always Gerard who was the creative one, Mikey couldn’t sketch if his life depended on it. He also could’ve studied, but that just made him feel annoyed and a little confused, so most nights he just laid in his bed, staring at the ceiling and listening to his growing collection of records, over and over, maybe sometimes texting Alicia though she was rarely awake at these hours.

 

It had been one of those nights again, where he didn’t sleep a lot, and when he did it was unsteady and constantly broken off by him waking up only to stare at the ceiling for another half hour before he drifted off again. So the next morning he slept a little longer and was even later than he’d been for math yesterday. Again, he didn’t really care but he’d better get going, since his mom had enough to worry about without having to deal with calls from angry teachers because he couldn’t get his ass out of the house in the morning.

 

It was still raining, but then again what did he really expect from late October mornings in Jersey. It would probably stay like this until somewhere in February. He was in his car, a little slower than usual due to the blurry view that the rain gave the windshield and slippery roads. Gerard had taught him how to drive last year, and while his brother was an excellent driver, Mikey’s skills behind the wheel went as far as to accurately not hitting trashcans in the side of the road, but not really further. So he was automatically also a very careful driver, since the last thing he needed was someone making him pay for driving into a mailbox or fence. 

And if he had been driving just a little faster than what he was, he probably wouldn’t have seen the pedestrian that suddenly appeared out of the rain in the side of the road, and he would probably have hit him and maybe injured him and thank god that he didn’t care about making it to school on time. 

It turned out to be a guy his own age, maybe a little older, that was walking at the side of the road. He was completely soaked and with a backpack slung across one of his shoulders. Mikey felt a little bad for him, and for a while he considered stopping and asking the guy if he needed a lift. Usually he was reluctant around people he didn’t know, but it was almost unfair that the dude had to walk around in pouring rain while Mikey had 3 empty and dry seats. So, slightly to his own surprise, he clumsily slowed down the car and rolled down the window. 

“Um” he started and the guy looked at him, squinting as the raindrops hit his face. “Do you want a ride, uh” 

The guy kind of lighted up, and grinned at Mikey as he nodded. “Sure. Thanks man, I thought I was going to drown before I made it to school. I missed the bus, and I don’t have a car”

Mikey opened the door and the guy slid into the passenger seat and dropped his bag between his feet. He wasn’t very tall, but he had a wide grin with approximately a thousand teeth, and his sneakers were bright red. “Where do you go to school?” Mikey found himself asking, and the guy made a vague gesture forward. 

“Just a few streets that way, behind the highway. I don’t really know what the street is called, I’ve only been there since last Monday. I used to live in Chicago. I’m Pete by the way” he explained and Mikey nodded. 

“Oh, that’s my school too. And uh, I’m Mikey” he said. 

“Cool. What year are you in?” 

“Sophomore” 

“Really?” Pete asked with a cocked eyebrow. “I thought you were older”

“Sadly, no” Mikey said dryly and Pete shrugged. 

“I’m a senior. I don’t really look that old. I’m kind of tiny” he laughed and Mikey shot a glance in his direction. He was wearing a tight hoodie and low cut jeans. It did make him look kind of tiny. But he had a deep voice that easily filled the whole car. It was like it didn’t really match with his body, and then again he seemed so confident that it just kind of made sense anyways. 

Silence fell in the car until Pete noticed the tapes scattered across the dashboard that Mikey hadn’t ever kept any kind of system in. Much like the rest of the car; there were candy wrappers and empty coffee cups and a couple of hoodies and change and various random junk lying around in the backseat and the trunk. “Can I?” Pete asked and reached out to look through the tapes before Mikey had a change to answer. He was kind of straightforward. Slightly intimidating. 

“Oh, I like this one” he said after turning a few of the tapes over. 

“Mellon Collie” Mikey stated. “It’s the best one they’ve made” 

“Totally. Have you ever seen them, Smashing Pumpkins?” 

Mikey shook his head. “I want to. Someday” 

“Dude, you have to lend me some of these” Pete said excitedly while turning over some of the other tapes, one of them being Gerards most beloved old Misfits tape. Mikey didn’t really have the energy to be in such a good mood before noon at least, but he liked Pete. He seemed cool enough. “They’re like, golden” 

“It’s also only to good ones I keep in the car” he said, and maybe he was bragging just a little, little bit. 

“Of course” Pete grinned. “Do you play? Like, I play bass. I was in a band in Chicago” 

“I wanted to learn guitar” 

“But you didn’t” 

“No”

“Why not?” he asked, tilting his head and Mikey didn’t know how to explain that he didn’t really do anything these days. So he just shrugged, and Pete left the subject.

 

They were both quiet the rest of the drive. But Pete thanked Mikey warmly for the ride when they arrived and hurried off to whatever class he was taking. Mikey took his time getting to English, placing himself in one of the empty seats in the back. Alicia was further up front, scribbling something in her book. At some point she turned around and sent him a look that was partly worried and partly understanding. Mikey figured that he probably looked like something that had been dead for a while.

♢

Pete didn’t really expect to ever talk to Pete again. He almost didn’t even spot him at school, because though Pete had been in a band and liked all Mikeys old tapes, he hung out with all those kinds of people that Mikey usually stayed away from, the jock-ish kinds of athletes that Mikey usually avoided in the hallways unless Alicia was with him. They didn’t talk to him when she was there. Sometimes they dropped an insult when he walked by them alone, so he changed direction whenever he spotted them. But it kind of took him by surprise when he did talk to Pete again.

 

He was heading for the school’s parking lot when he ran into Pete, like literally ran into him. He was on his way around the corner and didn’t see him, and suddenly they were both sitting flat on the ground and Mikey had dropped the loose sheets of paper he was carrying. 

“Dude, watch where you’re g-, oh hey, Mikey” 

“Um, hi” Mikey mumbled while clumsily getting up from the asphalt. Pete got up quicker than him and hurriedly started picking up the papers he’d dropped. 

“Sorry, uh, I didn’t see you there” 

“It’s okay.” Pete handed him the sheets and sent him a grin. 

“So, were you ever going to let me borrow those tapes of yours?”

“Oh, I thought you’d forgotten about that” Mikey said honestly, a little taken aback. He hadn’t really expected Pete to remember him just because he gave him a ride a while ago, not to mention what they’d talked about while driving. 

“Never, dude, I don’t know anyone around here who got music taste like that” Pete grinned. Mikey could almost count his teeth. He didn’t, though. Pete was sort of right, there wasn’t really anyone he knew, except for Alicia maybe, who liked his slightly outdated music taste. It was all MTV’s grunge and sugar coated pop songs. Not that there was anything wrong with either, he just liked his own stuff better. Gerard liked most of his music, but he was in New York, and even though it was only a couple of hours in car, it seemed so far away. 

“You can just like, come over whenever. I have plenty of time.” It was almost an understatement. He always had time. He rarely did anything outside his room. 

“Um, I’m free now” Pete said and Mikey shrugged. 

“Okay” he said and headed for his car. Pete followed with jumpy steps and it kind of made Mikey feel like walking slower. So he did. Pete started talking about whatever, pointing things out about the buildings or the people or the trees that Mikey hadn’t really noticed before, though his major personality trait was shutting up and noticing.

♢

“Do you want coffee?” Mikey asked as Pete dropped his bag in the hallway and jumped up to sit on one of the kitchen counters. 

“Well yeah, but caffeine gets me like, all hyperactive” Pete said and Mikey took two mugs from the cupboard anyways. 

“I just use it to stay alive” he huffed and the corners of his mouths tugged upwards a bit. 

“You don’t get hyperactive?” Pete asked with wide eyes. Mikey kind of thought that Pete was a little hyperactive all the time, caffeine or not. 

“Shit, I’m barely active at all” he said and Pete laughed. His laughter was loud and braying and a little excessive but it was also kind of reassuring. Mikey was immediately sure that Pete didn’t laugh because he felt he needed to. 

“Touché”

 

It only took like half an hour before Mikey got what Pete meant when he said caffeine fucked him up. He was constantly moving around Mikeys room, going through the rest of the tapes that he kept in his bookshelf, looking through his comics and talking about gore movies with a speed that Mikey had thought was impossible until now. 

“They should put some kind of warning on you. ‘Avoid intake of any caffeinated products’” he said dryly and Pete sent him a smug grin. Mikey was lying on his bed with his phone. He didn’t look at Pete; even that was a little exhausting when he was so full of energy. 

“Told you so.” He turned around to face Mikeys movie collection again. It had been slowly expanding since Gerard started sending him movies from New York that he thought was worth watching. “You should see me after trick or treating, when I’ve eaten my bodyweight in candy. I’m almost crawling all over the ceilings” 

“You still go trick or treating?” Mikey asked curiously. He hadn’t been since he and Gerard was in middle school. When he thought about it like that he kind of missed it a little bit. 

“ _You don’t_?” Pete replied like it was the most outrageous thing he’d heard. 

“No. I don’t wanna go alone, and I don’t know anyone who doesn’t think its lame” 

“Dude, what _are_ Jersey people even” Pete said, wide-eyed before grinning. “I can take you trick or treating” 

“You don’t have to.” Mikey took his eyes off his phone and sat up halfway to look at Pete. Pete just smiled again. 

“No I don’t. But I kinda want to now” 

“Um, okay” Mikey flopped back down on the bed. 

“You can’t just stop trick or treating man, even when all the uptight housewives won’t give you candy because they say you’re too old. Then you just buy a shitload of candy and eat it by yourself and TP their houses afterwards”

“What are you, like, four years old?” Mikey said but couldn’t help but smile at Pete. The image of Pete throwing toilet paper on someone’s house because they wouldn’t give him candy because he was 18 years old was kind of really amusing. 

“Approximately, yes. But it’s like a win-win situation. You get both trick _and_ treat” 

“That’s a way to put it” 

“That’s the best way to put it, you can’t even deny it” Pete said confidently. In that instant Mikey kind of envied how comfortable Pete looked in his own skin. Mikey always felt too small for his frame, either that or like he was too big to fit in himself. It was so tiring.

♢

So, Mikey became some sort of friends with Pete after that. Some sort of good friends actually.

Sometimes Pete reminded him a little of Alicia, but in other ways he couldn’t be further from her. He was more unpredictable, he talked a lot and changed his mind so often that it was really confusing to keep track of what he liked and what he didn’t like. 

Mostly they didn’t talk at school since Pete had his athlete friends that he also needed to spend time with and since they didn’t really approve of Mikey he usually stayed away when they were near, and Mikey had Alicia. But then sometimes Pete would determinately come over and dump down next to him during lunch without any explanation and just eat with Mikey. And other times he would come rushing and ask Mikey to skip next period with him, like it was a matter of life and death, and he didn’t really give any reason for this either. But Mikey learned to not expect one, he just followed Pete out to the fields or as far towards the city that they could make it before they would have to head back to the school, and he listened to him talk and talk and talk. 

Pete would talk about anything really. In an average conversation, (conversation meaning Pete talked non-stop with Mikey occasionally nodding and adding a quick ‘yes’ or ‘no’, for as long as Mikey would let him talk), Pete could go from complaining about how he always lost in hide and seek as a kid because he couldn’t sit still, to how he was fairly certain he was in love with Catwoman and had all her comics under his bed, to how he put on a dress once and got beat up for it and how he had a guinea pig when he was younger but it escaped and was probably run over by a car. Mikey just listened to all of this, and it was really soothing actually. Pete just oozed out of himself and Mikey drank it up and most of the things he forgot pretty quickly because Pete said so many words and he could only remember so much, but some of the things also stuck with him.

 

Mikey also learned that Pete was kind of affectionate and could easily exaggerate his emotions and he was not nearly as confident as he seemed at first sight, but it was okay. Mikey was messed up too. It worked out like that. 

All of this kind of came down to one point, midway through October on a regular Friday afternoon, where Mikey accidentally bumped into one of the jocks in the hallway. He was huge and muscular and surrounded by a couple of his friends and looked pretty frightening even without Mikey being in his way, but it got even worse as he turned to Mikey with an annoyed look. 

“Watch where you’re going, faggot” he spat like his words was really going to affect him. Mikey was just more anxious that he was going to punch him, which was a very real possibility. 

“Okay” he just murmured to the floor. This was the only part of high school that he really despised; when his being-one-with-the-wallpaper-abilities backfired and he suddenly was the center of some group’s attention. Especially groups like these. 

“What did you say?” the huge guy said and Mikey wasn’t sure whether it was because he for whatever reason provoked him or just because he was deaf. 

“Nothing. Sorry” he stuttered and tried to make his way past the guy, kind of accidentally bumping into his shoulder again. This was so stupid. This whole scenario was ridiculous and he just wanted to be left alone. 

“I said watch where you’re going, asshole” he repeated and gave Mikey what might be a light shove to the big guy, but since he was twice Mikeys size, was more of a rough tackling to Mikey. 

“Hey, fuck off, leave him alone” a voice interrupted and Mikey gratefully looked up to find Pete making his way between the guy and Mikey. 

“What the fuck Pete, you take the fags part?” the guy, who seemed to know Pete and expect his approval of the situation, growled and Pete just straightened himself up. It didn’t help a lot on the fearsome impression he was trying to make, since he was even smaller than Mikey was. None the less the guy backed off a little. 

“Yea, he didn’t fucking do anything to you” Pete said harshly. 

“Fuck you too, then” 

“Bet you’d like that, huh. Who’s the real faggot then?” Pete asked, and maybe he wasn’t really terrifying as he stood there in his bright red sneakers and was like 5 foot tall, but he turned incredibly provoking, incredibly fast. 

On the other hand, the punch to his chin that he took for being that provocative was not so graceful. He ended up lying on his back in front of Mikey with a small trail of blood running from the edge of his mouth. The guys that had approached Mikey kind of disappeared, and besides a couple of other students who minded their own business, the hallway was empty. 

“Dude, are you okay?” Mikey asked with wide eyes, kneeling down to help Pete to his feet again. 

“Sure, don’t worry ‘bout it” Pete said and sent him a half-smile. Some of his teeth were rosy.

“No seriously, you didn’t have to do that” Mikey persisted, and Pete just shrugged and wiped the blood from his chin with his sleeve. 

“No I didn’t. But I wanted to. You gotta stop thinking I’m only doing things because I feel like I have to. I like you, so I didn’t want you to get beat up. It’s that simple” Pete said sincerely and Mikey smiled a little. 

“Huh, thanks” he mumbled, because he didn’t really know what to say. He wasn’t really used to people openly showing affection towards him, but then again he wasn’t really used to people like Pete. He still wasn’t even completely sure what ‘people like Pete’ actually meant, because Pete was complex to figure out. The hardest thing to figure out was probably why Pete seemed to like him, but he did none the less, and that was another thing Mikey wasn’t really used to. People liking him. Well, Alicia liked him, but it wasn’t like she really put that into words or actions as much as the absence of both, and Gerard liked him but he wasn’t around right now, and his mom liked him most of the time when he didn’t break anything or was in her way, but that was his mom. She kind of had to like him. With Pete it was just different. 

“Let’s skip the last period and go get something to eat” Pete suggested, and just like that, it was like he’d forgotten all about what just happened, and his lip that was swollen a little was the only thing to remind Mikey that Pete had just majorly saved his ass. 

“Okay” Mikey just said, because sometimes Pete overwhelmed him so much that he kind of spoke even less than usually. Pete never seemed to mind.

♢

They had slipped into a kind of filthy booth at a highway diner. Mikeys car was parked outside; they’d driven in the other direction than the city from the school and ended up here. It was kind of a deserted road, though there were a few other people in the diner. 

They both had burgers and coffee in front of them and some repetitive tune was seeping out of a jukebox in the corner of the room. It was a little cold in here and smelled like deep fried food from the door between the kitchen and them. The place itself was basically stuck somewhere in the late 50’s. It had its own charm. 

“This is kinda gross” Mikey stated and poked his burger before eating it anyways. 

“It’s better than school” Pete mumbled through a mouthful of beef and Mikey nodded. “School is gross” 

“What a deep statement” Mikey said with a dry giggle. 

“But like, those guys today, I play soccer with them and then they’re okay, nice to me and all, but when I tell them not to beat you up suddenly we’re on jaw punches instead of fist bumps” Pete said with a headshake. 

“Sorry about that”

“It’s not your fault, like, you don’t hit me because I play soccer with those kinds of guys” he continued and Mikey shrugged. It was mostly because he didn’t really care. When Pete wasn’t with him it wasn’t really any of his business what he was doing. 

“Dude, I don’t hit anyone, I mean, have you seen me? I’d last about five seconds in a fist fight with a six year old” Mikey said with a half-smile. 

“What? Like you couldn’t totally take out half the rugby team with one of your hands tied to your back” Pete grinned. 

“Blindfolded” 

“Totally” Pete laughed loudly and the waitress raised an eyebrow in their direction. None of them really cared. “No but my point was, I don’t really like any of them, they’re dickheads, but I kinda have to if I wanna play soccer” 

“It sucks” 

“Yeah. It sucks. That I can’t be friends with who I want because I happen to like kicking a ball around a field with twenty other sweaty dudes” 

“When you put it like that-“ Mikey started. Then he broke completely down giggling, closely followed by Pete. He hadn’t laughed like this in a long time. 

“Yeah, it sounds so stupid. It _is_ stupid, and they’re gonna give me hell in the fields on Monday” Pete said, and though he seemed kind of bummed out about it he still didn’t stop laughing. 

“Just kick them in the shins, harder than usual.” That was really Mikeys best advice when it came to sports. He’d watch it sometimes, but he couldn’t even remember the last time he had enthusiastically engaged in any kind of physical activities. 

“That’s also about the only part of them I can actually reach” Pete said in between giggles and Mikey snorted.

♢

“What?” he asked. She was staring. He could feel it. 

“You’re acting different” Alicia said, and Mikey lifted his head from his textbook to raise his eyebrow at her. 

“No I’m not” 

“Yes you are. And you know it. It’s not bad different.” She tilted her head and raised her eyebrow back at him. 

“How, then?” he said with a tiny smile. Maybe he was acting a little different. 

“You’re more like Mikey” 

“I’ve been Mikey the whole time” he insisted and she just crossed her arms and gave him a look that told him different. 

“You’re more like the Mikey from last year.” Mikey knew what she meant. He just hadn’t really thought about it until now. The Mikey from last year wanted to learn how to play guitar and at least tried to get to school on time and lived off of more than just black coffee and self-pity. But that was because the Mikey from last year spent all his time with Gerard and had Twin Peaks marathons in the basement and could discuss the plotline of Star Wars for hours and made trips to the comic store in the next town on Saturdays. 

“Yeah, maybe” he just said and Alicia nodded. Mikey turned back to the textbook and smiled at it, just a little. He knew all the questions that Alicia wasn’t asking, and he nudged her knee under the table with his own to show his thankfulness for the fact that he didn’t have to answer said questions. She probably knew what he’d say anyways, and she’d know even better what he’d mean too. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i couldn't go to my friends place because i had a fever so i wrote this instead (what a lousy compensation, but still).
> 
> next chapter should be up pretty soon because i have too much time on my hands
> 
> i appreciate any kind of feedback yo


	2. Fifteen Blows To Your Mind

Mikey wasn’t really asleep when the small clicking noises started, he was just kind of in his own world, but it still took him a moment to figure out if they were actually real or not. In the end he found that they were. It was only a little past seven, though already completely dark outside, so it took him a minute to figure out what it was. After a couple of minute he guessed that it was kind of obvious, it was small pieces of gravel thrown at his window. He crawled up on his bed and pushed it open. He couldn’t really see what was outside, but he had an idea. 

“Mikey?” 

“Hey Pete” Mikey said with a smile and after another few moments he could spot Petes outline standing on his lawn. 

“Is there any way I can get up to your window?” he asked and Mikey looked around for a second. 

“Um, yea. If you climb onto the porch railing and then the canopy, you can reach up here” 

“Awesome” Pete said with a nod and made his way towards the porch.

 

A couple of minutes later he was in Mikeys room, toeing off his sneakers since they were a little muddy from walking around the backyard, before flopping down on Mikeys bed. Mikey was at his desk, and he’d been looking for new stuff to download when Pete interrupted him. 

“You know my mom isn’t home. Why didn’t you just use the front door?” 

“Dude, where’s your sense of adventure?” Pete asked and he had that tone of voice again like Mikey had said something offensive, though he was smiling. 

“Well, you told me you’d be over at seven. It wasn’t _that_ much of a surprise” he said and Pete shrugged, as much as he could when he was lying down. He had dug out an issue of Infinity Gauntlet from under Mikeys bed and was flipping through the pages, though he’d borrowed and read them probably a hundred times by now. 

“Yeah, but we’re teenagers. I’m pretty sure we’re _supposed_ to climb through each other’s windows at night” Pete explained like Mikey was stupid. “Don’t you ever climb through your girlfriend’s window, just to be all, y’know, like in the movies?”

“Wait, what girlfriend?” Mikey said and frowned at Pete. The last time he checked he was still at zero on his girlfriend count, much unlike Pete, who he had been well around in Chicago, at least according to his own countless stories. 

“How many of them do you _have_?”

“Uh, none as far as I know” 

“Then what about Alicia?” Pete said with a questioning facial expression. 

“Pete, Alicia’s not my girlfriend.” Then Pete was the one frowning, and Mikey couldn’t help but snicker at his facial expression. 

“Wait, you and Alicia aren’t dating?” he said as if just to be sure. Mikey shook his head. 

“Um, no. We tried it once for like, three weeks and that just wasn’t right. She’s more into the cheerleader type now” Mikey said and giggled more. Pete looked like the world was turning upside down inside his head, and okay Pete hadn’t more than talked briefly to Alicia a couple of times, not that either of them had anything against each other, it just hadn’t really happened, but Mikey thought it had been pretty obvious that they weren’t a couple. 

“ _Oh_ ” Pete said. “Like that” 

“Yea so, no I don’t climb through her windows” Mikey said. “It also looked like a lot of work” 

“It’s not that bad” 

“Did you bring all the stuff?” Mikey asked curiously, changing the subject and Petes face lighted up a bit. 

“Of course.” He got up from the bed and went over to his jacket that he’d thrown across the headboard of the bed, and worked a white sheet out of each of his pockets. They were all crammed up so they’d fit into the pockets and had hundreds of tiny creases when Pete threw them to Mikey who was still sitting at the desk. Then Pete got out a marker and a pair of scissors and an eyeliner pen. He went and put it all down on the desk next to the sheets that Mikey were trying to straighten out across the wooden surface. 

“You’ve got baskets right?”

“I think, downstairs, somewhere in the basement” 

“Good. Let’s cut these up first” Pete said and grabbed one of the sheets and the marker. He folded it out completely on the floor, didn’t bother to move all the stuff laying on the floor that Mikey hadn’t bothered to tidy up, ever probably. He just started drawing two equally sized circles on the sheet and when he was done he looked thoughtfully at it for a while, before he started cutting the holes open with the scissors.

 

A good five minutes later he threw the sheet over his head, and placed the holes over each of his eyes, and Mikey sent him a smug smile, taking in the cartoonish ghost standing in front of him. “The sheet is too long”

Pete looked down, to find that the sheet was dragged across the floor when he moved. It was a little too long. “You don’t have to rub in my face that I’m small. I make a cool ghost” Pete said with a fake hurt to his voice. Mikey snickered. 

“Of course you do. Make mine now, I’ll get the baskets then.” Mikey got up from his chair and exited the room to head for the closet in the basement where all he and Gerards old toys were stashed away. He was almost sure they had two pumpkin shaped baskets for trick or treating in there somewhere too. He heard Pete rummaging around in his room while searching through old board games and action figures and rollerblades and children’s books. After a while he found what he was looking for and headed back upstairs where Pete proudly handed him the other sheet, which now also had eye-holes. 

“Put it on” he demanded, and Mikey handed him both the baskets before doing so. “Fuck, it doesn’t even reach the _ground_ on you” Pete said and Mikey couldn’t see his face but he guessed that his expression was overly annoyed. “What did I even do to deserve 5 foot 4?”

Mikey snickered. “On the other hand you’ll probably get more candy because even when we’re under the sheets I still look too old” 

“Shut up” Pete said and punched his shoulder lightly. “And there’s no such thing as too old anyways. Sit down, and I’ll put eyeliner on you”

“Why do we even need that?” Mikey asked, but obediently sat down on his bed so Pete could lean in and smear it on his eyelids. 

“It’s a final touch. It makes it look cooler through the holes in the sheet” 

“Or you’re just looking for an excuse to wear makeup” 

“You never know” Pete shrugged as he finished Mikey and went over to the mirror to apply his own.  

♢

So, a couple of days before Halloween, Pete had come up with what he himself thought was the world’s greatest idea. He excitedly came running up to Mikey during one of the lunch breaks, though he was usually kind of busy charming his way back into the soccer team after taking the punch for defending Mikey, and told him that they should just dress up as ghosts for trick or treating because then nobody could see that they weren’t actually cute little seven year olds, and they’d get tons of candy. 

Honestly, Mikey thought it was a pretty cool idea, and he was more excited about this than he’d ever admit to Alicia, though she kind of looked at him in the days up to, as if she already knew far too well exactly how much he looked forward to this. 

But one thing Pete hadn’t really counted into the plan was the fact that nobody would really believe that you were anything below far too old to pretend you’re a child, when they opened their doors and two already long dropped male voices greeted then with ‘trick or treat’. Even if you’re masked. So they didn’t get a lot of candy after all, no matter how much smaller than everyone else Pete claimed that he was. So they headed home kind of early.

 

“Come on” Pete suddenly said, turning down a completely different road than the one they’d need to take if they wanted to get back to Mikeys house. 

“Where are we going?” Mikey asked as he followed Pete, speeding up his steps a little so he could keep up with Petes sudden faster pace. They were still dressed as ghosts, and their sheets fluttered backwards in the cold wind.

“Someplace I know. It’s cool.”  

 

“The gas station was your cool place?” Mikey called sarcastically to Pete who was a few steps ahead of him on the sidewalk. 

“ _No_ ” Pete yelled back, like it was completely obvious, though he was heading for the glass door that separated the tired looking clerk behind the desk from the cold weather outside. “I just want candy first. And apparently I have to get it for myself” 

Mikey took a few quick steps and caught up with Pete as he entered, and followed him around while Pete picked out a few bags of candy that he wanted. The store clerk, who wasn’t much older than any of them, sent them a raised eyebrow since none of them had bothered with taking off their sheets. When Pete went over to him to pay though, he pushed it back so his face was revealed. Mikey snorted because the eyeliner had gotten smeared a bit and Pete mostly looked like some tanned version of a long lost member of Kiss. Pete just made a grimace in his direction.

 

“Okay, you’ve got candy enough to support your need for sugar for like six months now-“ 

“More like six minutes” Pete cut off, already opening one of the bags as they walked down the street. 

“So, where are we going?” Mikey asked. 

“It’s not far. Wait and see”

 ♢

“They said it’s haunted?” Pete stated proudly as he gestured towards the house they were standing in front of. 

“Who exactly said that?” Mikey asked skeptically and Pete just shoved him a little. 

“Y’know, _people_ ” he said. “Let’s go in there” 

“Don’t you think there’s like, alarms and stuff” 

Pete gave Mikey a look that reminded him a little bit of Alicia. Okay, there were probably not any alarms, the house looked old and like it would collapse down on them any minute. The garden was overgrown completely with weeds and the grass reached their knees. They were at the edge of town, and it was the last house at the end of a blind road. It was so cliché that Mikey could’ve laughed. He didn’t though, because it was actually kind of cool. 

They made their way through the jungle that was the front yard, and the porch creaked loudly underneath their steps. They had both pushed back their costumes by now, mostly because they got annoying whenever a strong blow of the wind hit them, so they were more like long white capes now. 

“We’re like superhero ghost busters” Pete grinned. 

“On Halloween duty” 

“I ain’t afraid of no ghost” Pete sung and pushed open the door that was moist and rotten and like out of a bad horror movie. Mikey followed and they made their way into the house that was empty except for spiders and dust. 

They spent a while walking around the ground floor, Pete zigzagging across the floors and touching everything from the walls to the windows to the stairway railings and generally not standing still for more than two seconds in a row. Mikey took it all a little slower. This was actually really awesome. He’d lived here his entire life and he’d never heard of this place, though it couldn’t be more than a 45 minute walk from his house, and Pete had barely lived here for a months and he knew. Like that, Pete had his ways. That was probably the benefit of being sort of friends with the soccer team and hearing all the kinds of gossip and just basic information that Mikey missed out on. 

After a while, Mikey put his attention of some faded photographs that were left and forgotten on one of the walls, while Pete made his way to the other end of the room to try and unlock a door that they’d found locked a few minutes ago. They both jumped when a loud thump sounded above them. There was definitely _something_ there. Upstairs. 

“Um.” Mikey looked at Pete with wide eyes, not really sure whether he really wanted to go upstairs or would rather hurry out the front door never to return.   
Pete made a nodding gesture to the ceiling and grinned. 

“You sure?” Mikey asked. 

“You’re a lousy ghost hunter” 

“I am also okay with not dying” 

“Well I’m going up there. You can stay down here and be boring if you want” Pete teased and made his way out of the room and back to the staircase in the hallway. Mikey listened to his steps, first on the stairs that creaked almost as much as the porch had done, and then above him, towards the spot where there had been noise a few moments ago. He’d better go with him, never mind his heart that was beating kind of fast; it wasn’t like he _believed_ in ghosts, but just to be sure. It would be kind of a shame if Pete was killed by some vengeful spirit because Mikey was too much of a chicken to go with him. 

So he headed for the staircase, and he was about halfway up when he head another loud thump and then Pete shrieking. “Fuck” he heard from somewhere above him. “Mikey?” 

“Pete?” Mikey yelled back, cautiously. 

“There was something _on_ me a second ago. I’m not even- I swear, there is something up here. It tried to kill me, I’m _sure_ ” he whined and Mikey had maybe for a moment suspected that Pete was setting it up to scare him, or just being his overdramatic self, but he did sound kind of terrified. 

“Where are you?” Mikey yelled back and the next time Pete answered his voice was kind of muffled and he couldn’t make out what he was saying. Mikey hurried up the rest of the steps and started walking through the upstairs rooms that was just as empty and dirty as the ones he’d just left. 

“Pete?” he called and heard Pete reply from somewhere in one of the other rooms. Mikey took another couple of careful steps into another one of the bedrooms, keeping an eye out for anything moving around him. “Where are you?” he lowered his voice as he got closer to where he thought he’d heard Petes. 

“In here” Pete mumbled again from behind a smaller door at the end of the room Mikey was in. Probably a bathroom. The room Mikey was standing in looked mostly like it had been a master bedroom back when the house had been inhabited. Mikey made his way to the door, but his steps was interrupted when he saw something moving in the corner of his eye. He was sure his heart relocated to somewhere in his throat right by then.

He quickly turned around, only to spot a large housecat, grey and black striped across the back with glowing golden eyes, sitting in the windowsill and looking at him with watchful eyes. It didn’t move towards him, it just sat there calmly while slowly moving its tail back and forth. It was pretty anticlimax, but Mikey kind of got an idea what had freaked out Pete. 

“Hey, buddy. You scared my friend” he mumbled in what was his most soothing tone of voice. The cat just stared at him, so he steadily approached it. “Did you try and murder him?” he giggled. 

The cat didn’t seem like it was particularly scared of him, so he tried petting it. It willingly pressed its head into his palm and closed its eyes. “You’re not very dangerous, are you?” he said, still baby-talking to make sure the cat wouldn’t scratch him or anything. 

“Who are you talking to?” came Petes still high-pitched but also curious voice from behind the door. 

“Your lethal assailant. It’s a cat” Mikey replied with a laugh as the cat purred and rubbed on his fingers. “It’s pretty sweet actually. You can come out of the bathroom now” 

“It’s not even a bathroom, it’s more like, a wardrobe. It’s kind of claustrophobic in here” Pete said, his voice calmer. 

“Well, you can come out of the closet, the pussy isn’t going to hurt you” Mikey snickered and the door clicked open and reveal a Pete, wide-eyed and with cobwebs in his hair. 

“Very fucking funny, Mikeyway” he grimaced but couldn’t help grinning anyways. “It just jumped down on me and did this loud angry-cat noise when I was in the doorway, don’t tell me you wouldn’t have panicked too” 

“You’re still the lousy ghost hunter here, and you also kind of look like a Halloween decoration” Mikey pointed out and the cat made an unsatisfied noise as Mikey had turned his attention to Pete, who just glanced suspiciously at the animal next to Mikey. 

“So do you. We could just go out and stand in people’s front yards. Scare away all the children” 

“Maybe they’d give us the candy then. Where did you put yours, by the way?” 

“Downstairs. Can’t hunt ghost with a baggage of fifty tons of candy” 

“ _Or_ being hunted by housecats” 

“Oh, shut up”

 

They made their way downstairs again, closely followed by the cat though Pete didn’t hesitate staring spitefully at it now and then. And when they made their way down the stairs and the wood underneath their feet suddenly creaked loudly, he jumped out of shock and clung to Mikeys arm, refusing to let go until they were safely on the lawn again in front of their house again with the several bags of candy that they’d picked up on their way out. And even then he still held tightly on to Mikeys wrist. 

“Just in case” he assured Mikey. 

“In case we’ll get assaulted by any more vicious pets” Mikey snickered and Pete pretended he didn’t hear him. 

“Let’s just go home”

♢

“I think it’s a girl” Mikey stated. He sat at his desk and the cat, who had followed them the entire walk from the ‘haunted’ house back to Mikeys place, was lying in his lap, purring lowly. 

“I think it’s evil” Pete responded dryly from Mikey s bed. He’d retaken his previous position on his back with a comic book in his hand, slightly annoyed by the fact that Mikey seemed to actually like the cat that he was convince had tried to take him out. 

“You shocked her. It was just self-defense. Besides, you didn’t get hurt” Mikey stated with a giggle. He was never ever going to let this go. “Except for your pride maybe”   
The sheets they’d been wearing was discarded in the corner of the room and they had both removed the worst dust and smeared makeup from their faces and looked kind of presentable. 

“I’m really a dog person. Really” Pete mumbled and flipped a page.

♢

“I’m like, epically hungry” 

“I’ll bet you ten bucks there isn’t a single bit of food in this house” Mikey slurred, barely awake before rolling over to face Pete that was on the other side of his bed. They had both fallen asleep somewhere between night and dawn yesterday and it was probably already past noon. “My mom’s working weekend shifts again and I didn’t grocery shop” 

“I’m going to die of starvation” 

“You ate like a thirty dollars’ worth of candy last night” 

“You need to stop living in the past, Mikey” Pete said with a grin as he sat up and scratched his hair that was all puffy and still dusty. In the instant that he did that, something huge and grey jumped down in his lap from the top of Mikeys closet. Pete shrieked and moved so fast back against the headboard that he accidentally pushed Mikey out of the bed and onto the floor. Mikey made an uncomfortable noise as he landed in a pile of clothes that was maybe dirty and maybe not. The cat looked offended at Pete and jumped down to Mikey, who stroked it’s back a bit. 

“You brought the fucking cat home” 

“Yeah, I-” he piped from beside the bed before sitting up. 

“I had forgotten about the fucking cat.” Pete got out of the bed and started putting on the clothes from last night. The cat retreated to her spot on top of Mikeys closet by jumping onto the desk first. “I swear it’s trying to murder me” 

Mikey laughed and Pete glared. “You should really buy me some breakfast in exchange for letting me be the target of you insane pet” 

“What do you want?” Mikey said, because okay, he was feeling a little bad for Pete. Just a little, the rest was pure amusement. Pete was a first class diva sometimes. 

“I really want some fucking pancakes” 

“Let’s go get pancakes, then”

♢

They had returned to the greasy dinner that they’d eaten in a couple of weeks ago, but this time Pete wasn’t bleeding and his appetite was remarkably bigger. He was shoving mouthfuls of pancakes soaked in syrup in, and Mikey watched him from across the table while he had ordered nothing but black coffee, which was really what he needed on mornings. 

Halfway through the meal, Mikeys phone started vibrating in his pocket, and he kind of expected it to be Alicia asking if he wanted to hang out later. When he fumbled it out of his jeans and saw Gerards name on the display, he got momentarily struck by a feeling he didn’t really know how to describe. It was quite overwhelming though. He hadn’t talked to Gerard in what, almost three weeks, and where he used to miss his brothers voice like hell every day, the past week at least, he had barely had time to think about it. 

“I’m just going to take this. It’s my brother” he said to Pete. 

“Take your time” Pete mumbled through a mouthful of food. Some syrup ran from the corner of his mouth and down to his chin. 

“You’re kinda gross” Mikey said with an indulgent smile. 

“You love it” Pete smiled back before Mikey headed out the door to answer his phone.

 

“Gee, hey, what’s up?” he said as soon as the stained glass door of the diner had closed behind him. 

“Long time no see, or y’know, talk”

“Uh yeah, sorry about that.” Mikey usually called his brother at least once a week. He felt kind of like an asshole. 

“Don’t worry” Gerards genuine voice sounded through the phone. “So, how are you?” 

“I’m pretty good” Mikey said, and he was actually completely honest. He was pretty good, now that he thought about it, if he didn’t count the little sting in his chest because he missed Gerard and had forgotten about calling him. 

“Really? You sound good too. Better than last time” 

“Really” 

“So, what are you up to? I’m kind of stuck in my dorm with paint to up above the elbows. I’m working on a huge project for the end of this semester. I’m trying to be done by next weekend so I can come home for a couple of days, but I’m not sure it’ll work out. But you’ll see my painting when I come home for Christmas break” Gerard babbled and Mikey listened eagerly. 

“It sounds cool. And I’m not doing much, um, I’m at some diner right now, eating breakfast” 

“It’s like 3 in the afternoon”

“Like you’re the one to talk” 

Gerard laughed. Mikey kind of missed his high giggle now that he heard it. “With Alicia?” 

“No, uh, with my friend. Pete” 

“Huh, never met him, have I?” Gerard asked curiously, and this time Mikey laughed a little. It was really typical Gerard to actually not remember if Mikey had introduced him to someone that wasn’t Alicia, like ever.

“No, you didn’t” 

“So, we’re you out last night for Halloween?” 

“Yeah. I was trick or treating” 

“ _Trick or treating_?” Gerards voice sounded full of some kind of amused disbelief, because Mikey was pretty sure he’d meant to ask if Mikey had been out for a party or something. “I don’t think we trick or treated since, like, you were in sixth grade” 

“It was fun. We went to a haunted house. I found a cat. It almost killed Pete” Mikey explained and Gerard huffed out a breathy laugh. 

“Sounds dramatic” 

“Totally dramatic” Mikey grinned.

 He and Gerard chatted for a while longer before Gerard had to get back to his art project, and hung up.

♢

When Mikey came back inside the diner, Pete was done eating and Mikeys coffee had gone cold, so they asked for the bill and shortly after they headed out in the cold air again. Mikeys car wasn’t parked more than a few slots down the parking lot outside the front door, and it was like a two minute walk, but about halfway there Pete grabbed Mikeys arm and stopped walking. He looked slightly out of it and like something really bothered him. 

“What?” Mikey raised his eyebrow and turned towards Pete. 

“Uh, I just-“

Pete stopped talking and Mikey sent him an encouraging look and nudged him a little. “What?” 

“There’s just something I um, I need to-“ he stuttered before breathing in deep and scratching his hair. Mikey kind of suspected that he’d forgotten his wallet inside or needed to take a leak or wanted dessert or something like that. Then, without any further warning, Pete reached up and kind of determinately put his hands on Mikeys shoulders and then leaned in to kiss him. So, yeah. 

It wasn’t a particularly long or deep or heartfelt kiss, but it was none the less very much a kiss, and when Pete pulled back a second or two later with a look of terror on his face that would have caused Mikey to laugh loud in any other scenario than this, he could still feel the echo of the warm pressure from Petes lips. Mikey didn’t really move or say anything, because okay, it wasn’t like the thought hadn’t struck him before; that maybe he kind of wanted to kiss Pete, possibly, if given the chance like somewhere out in a future he didn’t need to deal with right now, but this was just out of nowhere and very sudden and very real.

“Um” Mikey said and Pete tilted his head and looked at him with wide eyes. 

“Sorry? I guess” Pete said and though he still looked just as surprised as Mikey by his own spontaneity, it looked less like he was about to pass out and the words seemed to flow a little easier out of him now. “I just, uh, thought about that while you were out here talking. Like, it just hit me and I kinda needed to try it out, so yea, sorry, we can just like, forget about it if y-“ 

“Do it again” Mikey murmured, and Pete immediately stopped talking and frowned a little at him. 

“What?” 

“Please” 

“You know, you can just do it yourself” Pete said with a half-smile and a cocked eyebrow, and Mikey shrugged. 

“It was, y’know, kinda cute when you did it, like, on your tiptoes.” Mikey felt himself blushing and he looked down but before he could say more, Pete caught his mouth with his own, and this time it was more than just a quick peck on his lips. Mikey had time to feel all the really awesome sensations of being kissed running through him, right from the light weight of Petes slightly sweaty palms sliding to the back of his neck, to their noses that bumped together a couple of times, to the warmth he felt all the way down in his fingertips. He put his own hands on Petes sides, pulling him a little closer, and he could feel the shape of his torso through his hoodie and Pete tasted mostly like the overly sweet syrup from the pancakes and also a little like something familiar. 

And unlike the few times he kissed Alicia, it didn’t feel weird or like it wasn’t supposed to happen, it just felt warm and soft and wet, and Mikey thought that it didn’t really feel any different than kissing a girl, it just mostly felt like kissing Pete, and unexpected as it was, it was something that he probably could get used to.

 

When he came home that day, after dropping Pete off at his house, his lips were red and a little swollen but there was a smile lingering across his lips like there hadn’t been in a while, and maybe he had a hickey but that wasn’t something he was going to admit to anyone. 

The cat greeted him by purring and rubbing against his ankles when he entered his room, and he thought about the first time he’d met Pete, all wet and cold and thankful for the ride to school, and they had talked about music and Mikeys old tapes, and it was all some kind of rosy blur right now, but Mikey put on one of the tapes from that day and thought some more about Pete. 

“The bass lines on this are epic. Would you mind if I named you D’Arcy?” he said to the cat after the last notes of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness had left his room. He and Pete had agreed on that being the best Smashing Pumpkins album ever made, that first day in the car. Same car they had just spent at least an hour making out in, in the parking lot of a cheap diner who served bad burgers, and decent pancakes on Saturday afternoons. 

The cat just purred some more. 


	3. If You Get Too Far Inside, You'll Only See My Reflection

“ _Someone’s_ getting laid” Alicia pointed out with a smug smile. 

“I am _not_.” Mikey had his arms crossed, and his best denying facial expression. Partly true, he wasn’t getting _laid_ , like literally, because there hadn’t really been any kind of nakedness involved. _Yet_ , he liked to tell himself. 

“You know what you’re not, you’re not kidding anyone” she grinned and poked him provokingly in his side. “You’re late every single day and that scarf doesn’t hide anything at all, though it is very fashionable.” 

Okay so, maybe his days did involve less being in school on time in the mornings, and more picking up Pete on his way there and sort of getting distracted in the parking lot or outside Petes house or wherever in between, because hey, Pete was _right there,_ and it was easy to lean over into the passenger seat and Petes hands were warm and steady and he tasted like something Mikey was pretty sure was kind of addictive. 

The scarf was just a pitiable attempt from Mikeys side to cover up Petes obvious need to leave his mark wherever he’d been. Though it was very fashionable. 

“So, who’s the lucky girl?” Alicia asked curiously and poked Mikey again. He just shrugged and adjusted his scarf so it covered up a little more of the very visible hickey that had bloomed below his left ear. He smiled meanwhile, though.

♢

“I kind of wanna do dirty things to you” Pete admitted before diving in to push his tongue in Mikeys mouth again, he was currently straddling him with a knee on either side of Mikeys thighs and he had this really intense look in his eyes. A lot of parts of Pete was intense, but this kind of intense was definitely Mikeys favorite. “I think about that. A lot” 

“Yeah?” Mikey replied, more of a heavy exhale than actual words, but Pete still nodded, leaning his forehead on Mikeys and catching his breath. Their hips was pressed flush against each other, and Mikey wasn’t exactly _unaware_ of how it felt, but he tried to pay mostly attention to the parts of Pete that was above the belt. Hands, mouth, eyes, neck. Yeah, those were the things he knew how to feel about. It was anything below that, that kind of confused him, not that he didn’t like it, he kind of passed that kind of confusion pretty fast after him and Pete started doing things, but he didn’t know how to like it. And he knew that whatever he felt of weirdness about it, Pete felt times hundred. 

“I do, but I’m kind of scared too” Pete panted, and he didn’t grind on Mikey, because they didn’t do that, but he held his shoulders a little tighter and somehow got a little closer anyways. 

“Me too” he admitted, pressing a quick kiss to Petes lips, that he returned eagerly. “What are you scared of?” 

“What are _you_ scared of?” Pete just repeated and Mikey shrugged, able to feel every breath Pete took through their clothes. 

“I don’t know”

“Me neither. I’m just-“

“Yeah” 

They stopped talking when Pete leaned into Mikey again, busying them with more important things to do with their mouths than talking. The car was cold in the impervious November-night, but their quick breaths fogged up the windows, and then it was almost like it was just clouds outside, and they were somewhere far above a deserted parking lot outside some mall in Jersey in the middle of the night. Somehow Mikey felt that if that had been the case, there would’ve been less to be scared of. Sadly, they were nowhere except exactly in said parking lot, and Mikey thought those dirty things Pete talked about was a cool idea.

♢

Mikey slept a lot better when Pete stayed over, it was like it came so much more natural to just let sleep take over his body when there was a back pressed against his own, slowly rising and falling, movements matching his own. He also ate more because Pete ate all the fucking time and it made Mikey feel hungrier, even though Pete wasn’t the most appetizing thing to watch when he ate. But he also made Mikeys heart beat a little faster, his breath hitch and his eyes wander. And Pete just drifted around, completely oblivious to the way he altered Mikeys body into doing things he wasn’t used to doing; to wanting to do. It drove Mikey crazy, in a way that just made him want to pin Pete down and kiss him deeper.

And in exchange, Mikey calmed Pete down. Because Pete freaked out, he had his downs and they came in waves, like traffic at 8 in the morning or homework in the week up to finals. It was kind of predictable, and yet no one was really prepared for it. But Mikey did what he could, and unlike Pete whom Mikey suspected wasn’t completely aware of how much Mikey really clung to him to feel like he stayed sane, he knew exactly how far out Pete could get on his own.

Pete would call him in the middle of the night, and Mikey would always answer. And Pete would maybe yell or maybe cry or maybe just sound completely deadpan but in reality be at war with himself inside, and sometimes it was because of a math assignment or a soccer game and then other times he felt like he had no purpose on earth or was convinced that he hadn’t been supposed to be born in the first place, and Mikey would listen to each of his words, carefully, and as time went by he learned exactly what to say and what not to say.

Mikey thought that he himself was pretty predictable, he wasn’t very dramatic or impulsive, and usually he got Pete figured out pretty good too. And then at other times he didn’t, because sometimes Pete pulled a 180 on him and did something completely opposite of what anyone had guessed.  
It had been one of those days, Pete had been moody and slightly rejecting ever since he came over after practice, and Mikey just dealt with it because he knew that Pete wasn’t intentionally trying to annoy him, he was just dealing with twice as much as he showed and Mikey sort of got him.

In the end they’d just went to bed early, since none of them really felt like dealing with this day anymore, and Mikey fell asleep easily with Petes arm draped over his chest, warm and a little uncomfortable with bony limbs everywhere, and Pete breathed into his neck and it made Mikey shiver before he drifted off. 

He wasn’t gone for long though, after a couple of hours he was woken up by Pete shifting around and groaned at the other boy who kept on moving and turning and sighing. “Did you sleep at all?” Mikey asked. 

“No” 

“Huh” Mikey turned around so they were facing each other, and Pete quickly pushed himself against him, mouths colliding and Mikey made kind of a surprised noise in the back of his throat, but went along with it pretty fast. Okay, there had been some tension throughout the day since Pete had mostly been either sort of sad or sort of angry, and this was a totally preferable way to relieve that, Mikey was just a little out of it when Pete sort of smoothly slid on top of him. Usually when they did this they were fully clothed and in Mikeys car, driven off to somewhere private, now they were here, Pete only in boxers because he was never cold, and Mikey in jogging pants because he was always cold. 

“Um, Pete” he whispered when he could very much feel that both of them was going hard, and Pete ran his hands all the way from Mikeys neck down to his hips.

“What are you doing?” 

“No idea” Pete whispered back against his lips, and then he kind of tentatively pushed his hips down against Mikeys, and Mikeys breath hitched. That was new. Not bad, but definitely new. 

“Oh” he said when Pete did it again. “Um, are you- do we, uh” he stuttered, but gave up when Pete kept on grinding on him and kissed him some more. And it was like making out was a completely new and increased activity when there were simultaneously friction and some kind of action going on in his dick-area. 

“Fuck, _Mikey_ ” Pete moaned and Mikey carefully let his hands wander down Petes back to his ass, and pulled him a little closer, which made Pete moan again. Mikey was kind of taken aback because it was just very sudden, and maybe he could’ve laughed, but he just grabbed Petes ass again, and shivered when he moaned into his mouth. 

“Yeah” 

“I think- I, I’m gonna” his voice was ragged and unsteady. Mikey still knew what he meant and nodded. 

“Oh, okay, yeah” he said and kissed him again. Pete went stiff and made a half-loud noise when he came, before he relaxed down on Mikey, who only pushed against him a couple of times more before he followed. That noise Pete had made, Mikey thought, was something he’d really like to hear again.

They laid like that for a while, but the stickiness got uncomfortable after a while, and Pete was the first to break the silence. His voice sounded a lot different from the deep and breathy voice he’d used moments ago, much less confident, and it made Mikeys chest tighten a little. 

“Bathroom” he murmured and rolled off of him, before making his way out of Mikey room and down the hall. Mikey was kind of tired, so he turned over and fell asleep before he heard Pete come back again.

♢

The next time Mikey was pulled out of his sleep, he wasn’t exactly sure what had caused it, he just shifted around in his bed for a while trying to figure out what was wrong. It wasn’t until he rolled over to look at his watch, discovering that it was close to 5 am, that he realized that he was alone in his bed. He wasn’t supposed to be alone, Pete had been here, should’ve still been here. 

He checked his phone for any messages from Pete that could’ve said he went home or he needed to be alone or whatever, but there was nothing. No missed calls, no texts, no notes left on his bedside table or desk, not anything.

And okay, it wasn’t like he hadn’t expected something like this. He knew how Pete could freak himself out over the whole guy on guy thing, like he spent ridiculous amounts of time worrying about everything and absolutely nothing at all. And when he suddenly without further complications wanted to have sex with Mikey, _and_ actually did it, Mikey had kind of guessed that there would come something with Pete freaking out pretty soon afterwards. This was just sort of too soon. Mikey would’ve liked that Pete just lasted the night, pushed up against him keeping him warm and asleep.

He assumed that Pete had just gone home and was currently lying in his bed staring at the ceiling and rethinking his entire life, because he did that a lot when he got nervous. It was his own way of making bad things worse. Mikey considered if he should call him or not. If it had been any other occasion that this, he wouldn’t have hesitated calling Pete, but right now it was Mikey that Pete was freaking out about, so he didn’t really know whether it would just make everything more complicated.

About half an hour later he decided to call him anyways, and he could’ve spared himself all the thinking because Pete didn’t pick up his phone. That kind of worried Mikey, because much like himself, Pete didn’t really go anywhere without his phone, and kept it close to him at all costs. He called him three more times over the next twenty minutes or so, with the exact same result.

Mikey didn’t sleep anymore that night.

♢

The next morning he downed a mug of coffee at record speed and just pulled a beanie over his hair before heading out the door. It had started snowing, and the roads would be icy. Great. He went straight to Petes house, where he actually hadn’t been that many times considering that him and Pete were kind of dating. Okay, pretty much dating by now, but anyways, they spent most of their time at Mikeys house or in Mikeys car, because no one interrupted them there. Petes mom liked to knock his door every 10 minutes, asking him about something or telling him to do something or reminding him of something, and that made it kind of difficult to have any kinds of extended make-out sessions.

She smiled at him when he opened the door, and tried to smile back, but it probably just ended up in some kind of unappealing grimace. “Can I talk to Pete?” 

“He’s not here sweetie, I thought he was at your place” she said and tilted her head. Mikey liked her, she was kind in the same way that Pete was, though he probably wouldn’t admit it. 

“Oh, um yea, he was, but-“ he started and pressed his eyes shut, trying to figure out an explanation in less than three seconds. “He didn’t have any clean clothes, uh, but he must’ve already gone to school, um, thank you anyways” 

She smiled at him again when he said goodbye and headed back down to his car. When he was settled in the driver’s seat again, he tried calling Pete without any success this time either.

He didn’t go to school, couldn’t really deal with the fact that he had to be somewhere when Pete was missing, which was probably a stupid decision in the long run since there could’ve been people at school who for whatever reason knew where he was. But then again they probably wouldn’t tell Mikey if they knew.

He went home and sat at his dinner table for a while, counting possible places he could be, places that he usually was, but it wasn’t and endless of places Pete usually spent time in. There was his own house, Mikey house, school, the soccer field, Mikeys car and that was about it. He was already sure about three of them, and he’d come to the conclusion that he definitely wasn’t at school, and probably not at the soccer field either. 

D’Arcy entered the kitchen and jumped into his lap after a while, and he ran his hand through her fur while glaring at his phone. Behind all the worrying, he was kind of pissed at Pete too. He could at least have said something, anything at all, even if not about where he’d gone, then just about how he was, if he still liked Mikey or if he regretted what they’d done, just _something._

And on top of that he was also scared that Pete did regret what they’d done last night and now he didn’t want to talk to Mikey anymore, and Mikey just felt pretty shitty in general right now, but he didn’t vanish for that matter. But apparently he was just that much more in control of his life than Pete, which wasn’t a lot. He drank some more coffee and D’Arcy licked his palm a couple of times, and right then he was really grateful they’d found her.

He’d finished his fourth mug and the cat was asleep across his thighs when his phone rang. He got up so fast that he knocked over the empty cup and accidentally pushed D’Arcy off him, and she mad an annoyed noise and exited the room while he hurried over to answer his phone. 

“Pete?” 

“Uh no”

“Oh, ‘Licia, hey” he said, and he couldn’t really help the wave of disappointment that ran through him. 

“Hi, I just wanted to hear if you’d overslept. We kind of need you for that science thing from last week. You sound weird though, everything okay?” she said and Mikey shook his head before remembering that she couldn’t actually see hm. 

“Um, no, not really. You haven’t seen Pete at school, have you?”

“No, I don’t think he’s here. Why?” he could almost hear her frown through the phone. 

“He’s kind of gone” he mumbled, sort of reluctantly. He might have to tell her now that they were indeed in some sort of relationship, and that could probably have been better timing. 

“Gone, how?” 

“Uh, he was here last night and we um- he went home but he isn’t there, and he’s not here either” Mikey explained and okay, yeah, that explanation had some major holes in it. 

“He could be _anywhere_ Mikey, that doesn’t mean he’s missing” Alicia said reassuringly, and Mikey sighed. 

“I think- I think that he was kind of freaking out when he left. Like a lot” 

“Why?” 

“Um, because we maybe kind of had sex last night” he said and it just suddenly felt much more real and much less sacred when there was someone else than the two of them who knew. That was kind of weird. 

“ _What?_ ” Alicia asked, completely disbelieving and that would probably have been funny at some other time. It probably would be funny sooner or later. He’d have to remember to laugh at it later on. 

“Uh yeah” 

“You just fucked, like, out of nowhere? Boom?” 

“Not exactly” he said and couldn’t help but let a tiny grin grow on his face. 

“Oh. _Oh._ ” She said and yeah, she was probably right. “ _That’s_ who you’ve been so secretive about” 

“Maybe” he said and he could feel himself blushing slightly, even though Alicia was all the way at the other end of the line. 

“Mikey Way, I am going to kick you in the junk when I see you. You can’t just keep things like _that_ secret from me. That’s _unfair_. Oh my god. You and _Pete_ ” 

“Oh shut up”

♢

Alicia came over less than 25 minutes later, science project be damned, and she didn’t kick him, she just hugged him and yeah, that helped. Then they got in his car and Mikey tried calling Pete one last time before they drove out to look for him. Alicia was behind the wheel, and Mikey hadn’t argued since he wasn’t a particularly good driver in general, and right now he was kind of a mess.

First they drove past the soccer fields and Mikey even dared himself out of the car just to check that Pete wasn’t among the countless athletes than ran around on the fields. Then they visited all the parking lots that they’d spent their evenings in but he wasn’t in any of those either, and Mikey restlessly tapped his fingers on the dashboard and Alicia kept on sending glances in all directions.

When it was a little past 8:30 and they were just driving aimlessly around, Mikeys phone suddenly vibrated in his pocket, and he’d never gotten it out of there so fast before. He pressed it to his hear and it was like his heart jumped all the way up in his throat and fell down into his chest again when it was Petes voice on the other end of the line. 

“Mikey?”

“Pete!” Mikey almost yelled into the phone, and Alicia expectantly met his eyes when she heard her say his name. “Fuck, where are you?” 

“Uh, I’m not really sure. I’m- um, I’m on a bridge” he said and Mikey couldn’t sit still, he shifted in his seat and his breath was unsteady and he was kind of smiling, kind of ready to break something. 

“Where have you been?” 

“I went for a walk” Pete mumbled, and he sounded kind of regretful, kind of apologizing, but he mostly just sounded a little out of it. 

“You went for a _walk_. You’ve been gone for like seven hours” 

“Wow, that long?” he said, slightly surprised. 

“Yes, that long. I was worried.” Understatement of the year, but Mikey knew that Pete probably already was messed up right now, no need for him to make it worse. 

“Sorry” 

“I’m gonna come and pick you up” 

“Okay. Thank you. I went past the diner, y’know, the one we eat at sometimes” 

“Wow, that’s really far” Mikey said with a frown. 

“Yeah” 

“Fuck, Pete” 

“I know. Sorry” he said, apologizing another few times before they hung up, and Mikey told Alicia the directions to the diner. After they’d passed it, they just followed the highway for another ten minutes or so, until Mikey spotted a small bridge on the other side of a field, which crossed a small river. It was pretty, really, covered in the thinnest layer of newly fallen snow, and they parked at the side of the road before Mikey headed over there. He was at least ninety percent sure that this was the right place. It had to be.  Alicia waited in the car, for various reasons, and Mikey was grateful for that. She was his best friend and all, but there were things he’d rather that she didn’t witness.

He sped up when he noticed the outline of a person sitting against the railing of the bridge, and waved in the direction of it. “Pete” he yelled, but the sound of the water running kind of drowned his voice out.

It wasn’t until he was at the edge of the bridge that Pete noticed him, and slowly got up from where he’d been settled. Mikey walked over to him and just resolutely put his arms around him. 

“You idiot” he said and leaned his head against Petes. He was so cold, shaking, not wearing anything else than his jeans and a thin jacket. “Pete, you fucking idiot” 

“I’m sorry” he mumbled into Mikeys shoulder and Mikey just hugged him a little tighter, feeling every inch of his body fit with his own. “I freaked out. I’m so sorry. I don’t know what happened” 

“I know. It’s okay, just, fuck. I was worried” 

“I just- I needed some air and I walked and then I didn’t stop walking and then I was here, and I just sat down and stared at the water. It was weird. I kept thinking about how injured I would be if I jumped over the edge, like, I don’t want to die. Not at all. It was just messed up. I wish I wasn’t so messed up. Or scared” he explained, and it made sort of sense to Mikey. Pete made sort of sense to him in his own messed up way. His mouth was really close to Mikeys ear and he didn’t need to speak very loud for Mikey to her him, even though the water was still loud around them. “I also figured that I’m kind of in love with you” 

Mikey sniffled into Petes hair, his arms so tight around him that he probably couldn’t really breathe. Maybe he could. Mikey wasn’t very strong. He felt sort of strong right now though, less messed up. “Yeah, me too”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay new chapter, and wow let's just pretend that it didn't take like 2 months. hope you enjoy though, and im already working on the next one (last probably)


	4. You Know We're Friends Till We Die

“I’m here to see Peter Wentz” Mikey said to the nurse behind the desk in the lobby of the hospital. “I’m his, uh, _friend_ ” 

“Sure, he should be awake by now. He’s in room 36, two floors up and it’s on the left. Can I have your name?” she said monotonically. 

“Michael Way” 

“Great. Just don’t stay too long, it’s been a rough week”

Mikey made his way to the stairs and headed up, following the nurse’s instructions and ending up in front of a door, completely identic to every other door in the hallway, but with the number 36 next to the frame. He knocked, and it only took a second before he heard Petes voice through the door. 

He entered the room and found Pete sitting in a bed, all wrapped up in white sheets and hospital clothes, grinning from ear to ear. He wasn’t the only patient in the room but the old man next to him was sound asleep and hooked to a ton of electric devices. He probably wouldn’t mind Mikeys presence right now. 

“You better?” Mikey asked and sat down on the edge of Petes bed. 

“Yeah, they say it won’t take long before I’m not contagious anymore and then I can go home. That’s nice, ‘cause I really wanna kiss you sometime soon” 

Mikey giggled. “Then you could’ve just put on a jacket and avoided that pneumonia” 

“Shut up” Pete said without his grin getting smaller at all. Mikey put his hand on Petes knee through the duvet and squeezed. 

“I miss you” 

“Yeah. I miss you too. And I don’t think I’ve ever been more bored in my entire _life_. They don’t let you do shit here” he complained and sighed dramatically. Mikey rolled his eyes. “I read Playguy though”

Mikey snorted. “They let you have porn here?” 

“No, stupid, they don’t know I have it. It’s under the mattress” he patted the bed reassuringly. “All safe” 

“Where’d you even get that?”

“I bought it. I was bored and awake one night so I went over to the kiosk across the road and got it” 

“You’re not supposed to go out, Jesus, you’ve got _pneumonia_ ” Mikey said but couldn’t help but returning his never-ending smile. 

“Don’t worry. I brought all my duvets. It wasn’t cold at all” 

“How’d you even get out?” 

“It’s not the first time I’ve been here y’know, I kinda fall down from stuff a lot, so I just waited for the nurses to leave the staff room and then I used  their entrance. The clerk even felt bad for me so he gave it to me for free” 

Mikey couldn’t hold back a loud laugh, and he just kept giggling while staring disbelieving at Pete who just looked at him. “You sneaked out of the hospital with all your duvets to get a free gay porn magazine from a store clerk who pitied you. God, I love you” he said in between laughs. Pete patiently waited until Mikey had gotten a hold of himself before he continued. 

“Yeah, and like, I found out how to y’know, do things. Theory. It’s not so scary anymore. I kinda wanna try it, with you” Pete said earnestly and blushed a little, and Mikey just looked at him with this little smile and felt that he could look at him forever. He was pretty sure though, that if it hadn’t been for the unconscious guy in the other end of the room he would have insisted on trying them out right now. Instead he leaned over and settled his hand in the crook of Petes neck and kissed his cheek, jaw, earlobe and neck, again and again. He was so gone for this guy. 

“If you don’t stop doing that I’m going to be _so_ sad because I’ll have to wait another couple of days until we can do this properly” Pete said without sounding like he meant it, and Mikey didn’t listen either. He made sure that Pete had a visible hickey or two before the nurse came and kicked him out.

♢

A couple of days later, Mikey and Alicia was sitting in Mikeys room, each with their opened English book in their laps, supposed to do some kind of studying but not really getting anything done. Alicia had this smug smile, that had sort of been there permanently since the morning where they picked Pete up. She was kind of insufferable but on the other hand she had plenty of reason. 

“I can’t believe you fucked a soccer player for a whole _month_ without telling me” 

“We didn’t fuck” Mikey argued, as he did every single time she brought it up. Which was often. 

“Oh yeah, that’s right, you’re in _lov_ e” she snickered and Mikey elbowed her before looking away, still smiling though. 

“Like it’s worse than your obvious crush on that cheerleader girl, whatshername?” Mikey said just to get a little back at her. 

“None of your business, that’s what it is” she said determinately. “I’ll tell you when she disappears of the face of earth and we have to drive to the other end of the damn state to pick her up and get her to a hospital because she didn’t bring a jacket and it’s fucking winter” 

“I hate you”

“I know” she grinned and ruffled her hand through his hair. He glared while straightening it out again. “So, how is it?” 

“Is what?” 

“Doing it with a guy” 

“ _Licia_ ” he said, mouth hanging a little open. She was shameless. He also kind of loved her for it. 

“Oh, come _on_ , you boring homo” she complained. 

“You nosy homo” he shot back with a grin. 

“Hell yeah, that’s me. So tell me” 

“It’s, you know-“

“No, I literally don’t have any chance of knowing” she laughed and he blushed a little. 

“-Sticky” he said, and he never really got further before they both burst out laughing. And he ended up having to lean on her shoulder to keep from falling over. 

“Ew” she just ended up snickering, elbowing him in the side and making a face at him. 

“It’s totally hot” Mikey said with a cocked eyebrow and they kept on giggling.

♢

Pete was sent home from the hospital Thursday, and he hurried home to change his clothes and shower and all those kinds of things, plus talking to his parents about wearing reasonable clothes when he decided to go outside and all that. Mikey wasn’t exactly sure what he’d told them was the reason he got ill, but it was Pete, so he’d probably made something up in the last minute. He went over to Mikeys house straight afterwards, since he’d only talked briefly to him on the phone that same afternoon, and promised him all kinds of dirty things, and Mikey was just about _dying_ by now. 

Pete didn’t bother with any unnecessary shenanigans such as throwing gravel at Mikeys window or climbing through his window or stuff like that; he used the front door and hurried all the way to Mikeys room where he barely knocked before entering. 

“Honey, I’m home” he grinned excitedly and Mikey had never seen anything better in his entire life. He quickly got up from his desk where he’d been sitting and suddenly his personal space was full of Pete, and it hadn’t been in almost a week and this was a very nice change of events. “The nurse said I’m officially allowed to put my mouth on other people again” he stated proudly and Mikey just put his hands on Petes hips and leaned in to lick into his mouth. God, he’d been waiting to do that. 

“Hmmm” he hummed as response and deepened the kiss. “So, where are you gonna put it?”

“ _Everywhere_ ” Pete promised and walked Mikey backwards to his bed. “Man, I’ve had nothing to do but look at porn for five days straight and I couldn’t even do anything because of the old dude in the other bed. I am so, so- Fuck” he cut himself off when Mikey slid his hands down to the small of his back and pulled him down on the bed with him. It was kind of clumsy and Mikeys glasses got knocked slightly askew, but Mikey didn’t’ want it any other way than like this. Pete on top of him, straddling him and their mouths collided, hands unable to keep still for more than a moment at a time. 

“I’ve been thinking about all these _things_. I want to try and do them to you. I’m not gonna freak out. I am _so_ totally ready” Pete panted in between kisses while they tried to catch their breaths. 

“Knock yourself out. I’m all yours” Mikey sighed into him, and for a while there was nothing but them and the bed and the friction in the entire world.

 

When it came down to it, they never actually got any further than talking dirty and rubbing off on each other, because it all went so fast and they were both so worked up after days of waiting, that suddenly they were lying, limbs all tangled up, out of breaths and with sticky insides of their pants, and Mikey never wanted to move again. This time he hoped Pete didn’t either. 

“That was, like, really hot” Pete just stated, and his voice was completely different than from last time where he’d sounded completely out of it. Now he just sounded lazy and purring and really post-orgasm sexy. 

“We need less clothes” Mikey informed him, and tried slipping out of his jeans without moving too much around. He got them off in the end and Pete quickly followed his example, shirt and boxers going the same way. It wasn’t until Mikey felt all of Petes skin flush against his own that he remembered that they’d never actually been naked in front of each other, not even close actually, and there were so many things they hadn’t done yet. There were so many things they had yet to do. 

Then, he felt something really fucking cold against his thigh and he gasped and pulled back a little, staring at Pete with wide eyes. And then Petes eyes went wide too as if he just remembered something. 

“Oh yeah, that’s right. I, um, have a-“ 

“You have a piercing” Mikey said, not really a question and not really a statement either. “A dick piercing” 

“Yeah. Um” he suddenly sounded really insecure, and Mikey realized that he’d maybe sounded a little rejecting. He totally wasn’t. He really, really wasn’t, it just mostly made him want to do more things to Pete. Like right now. He was just kind of taken aback by it, because _hello_ , he was dating a senior football player with a genital piercing who was in love with him and wanted to have lots and lots of sex with him. It was like at some point his life had just turned really awesome and he had Pete to thank for that. 

“Hot. Can I see it?” he asked and Pete raised his eyebrows at him, though a smile crept onto his face. He pushed the duvet off him until he was completely stripped naked, and Mikey slid downwards until he was in eye-level with Petes crotch. “You have a nice dick, y’know” 

“You think?” Pete mumbled through a deep breath. 

“Yeah” he said, and without really thinking further he reached out and put his hand around the base of Petes dick. Pete flinched at first, probably mostly because he was still over-sensitive, but Mikey stroked him a couple of times anyways and Pete let out a breathy moan. “Do you think you can like, go again?”

“Um, yeah” he  panted from above Mikey, and he also only had to give him another couple of strokes before he was already half-hard. 

“Cool” he said, and then even though he’d just planned on using his hand, he reached out and licked the underside of Petes dick. Mikey looked up and saw his jaw fall open and his eyes shut, and yeah, this was much better. He took the tip in his mouth, and he didn’t really have any idea what he was doing but he guessed that it couldn’t be _that_ hard to figure out, and Pete seemed to be more than happy with him so far. 

He closed his lips tight around Petes length and started moving up and down slowly at first, while Pete went back to being fully hard, and he didn’t hold back with his sounds. Mikey just hummed against his dick once in a while and got used to the taste and smell and feeling of it. It was strange, but in a really, really good way and when his tongue sometimes would hit the little ring of metal, his dick twitched a little. 

“Fuck, Mikey, Fuckfuckfuck” Pete whimpered after what felt like an incredibly short amount of time, and his voice was all hitched and ragged and Mikey just wanted to capture that sound and listen to it for fucking ever. “Mikey, shit, I’m-   _fuck_ ” 

And Mikey got the hint and pulled off, because yeah, he liked this but he still wasn’t completely up for suddenly having a mouthful of Petes cum, that could wait for later, so he used his hand for the last few strokes and crawled back up to kiss Pete, who eagerly stuck his tongue in Mikeys mouth when he came. 

“Fucking hell, Mikey” Pete said after a while of catching his breath. He lay for another while with his eyes closed before kissing Mikey one last time and then following Mikeys lead and pushing himself downwards. 

“Y’know, you don’t have to” Mikey mumbled, trying to sound reassuring. 

“We are so past me having to do anything, I fucking want to” Pete said with a grin, pressing a kiss to Mikeys stomach just below his belly button, kissing lower and lower while Mikey clenched his hands in the sheets and made little noises in the back of his throat, because he was about to get his first blowjob and it was aforementioned hot senior boyfriend who was about to do it, and nobody was freaking out, and generally everyone involved was pretty great. Yeah, his life was awesome. 

And it was like the Pete from last week who was messed up and scared of this whole thing had completely vanished from the face of earth, because this Pete was just diving in and fucking going for it, and he had probably also had more blowjobs in his life than Mikey, which probably also helped on the whole experience thing, and normally Mikey was a lot quieter than Pete when it came to things like this, and just always actually, but a couple of kind of loud noises escaped him when Pete moved his tongue in some particular way. This was by far the best thing that had ever happened to him. 

Pete pulled off too when Mikey came, but either he wasn’t fast enough, of Mikey was just too slow to give warnings, because some of it hit his cheek and ran down his face, and Mikey wasn’t really sure whether he should tell Pete that that was about the hottest part of it. He grinned up at Mikey and crawled back up next to him. Mikey wanted to kiss him, but instead he flicked the tip of his tongue across Petes upper lip and licked off some of his own cum. He probably had never really counted on doing that exactly, nor finding it as hot as he did, but whatever, impulses. Those were the reason they were here at all. 

“You’re kinky” Pete whispered before leaning in to kiss him properly. When they parted he dried off the rest of his face in Mikey sheet and curled up next to him, face buried in his neck.

“Mmmh” Mikey mumbled in return. “I’m also tired” 

“Yeah”

♢

When they woke up the next morning, they really, _really_ didn’t feel like going to school. It was almost weekend anyways, and they’d much rather sleep for another couple of hours and then give each other really slow, lazy morning hand jobs and leave hickeys all over each other’s bodies. 

Then Pete went showering, and Mikey listened to him enter the bathroom and turn on the shower, just to make sure that he was actually showering and not taking another six-hour walk. Not that he believed he’d do that again, but just to be sure. 

After a while he got out of bed too, and quietly went into the bathroom where he could hear Pete humming to himself. 

“You should really consider a career in music” he said, and since he hadn’t bothered with putting on any clothes since they were alone as usual, he went over and pulled back the shower curtain a couple of inches and stuck his head inside. 

“Oh shut up. I thought I locked the door” Pete grinned and leaned in to kiss him. It was like since that day in the hospital where Pete had told that he wanted to try all kinds of things out with Mikey, they hadn’t really been able to stop kissing or touching each other, and Mikey was not the one to complain about this. He had been more okay with the whole get naked thing from the beginning, and it struck him that he might have been a little impatient at some points. 

“You did, but the lock is broken. And I’m kidding, you have a nice voice” he smiled, and then Pete pulled him all the way in the shower and underneath the steaming water with him. And then it took approximately three minutes of trying to actually get themselves washed before Mikey was pressed against the wall with his head leaned back and hands in Petes hair, while Pete was on his knees in front of him. They really were like rabbits.

♢

It was probably past 1 pm when Mikey suggested that they ate breakfast, only to discover that there as usual was nothing to eat in the house. 

“I can go down to the corner store and get some poptarts. You can just stay here, it’ll take like 5 minutes” he explained and Pete looked grateful that he didn’t have to get up and put on clothes. They’d been settled in Mikeys bed, watching a movie, still naked though since they hadn’t wanted to put on anything after they’d dried themselves after the shower. 

“I actually love you, you know that” Pete grinned and Mikey kissed his forehead. 

“It’s more purposeful to pick up poptarts when there’s a naked lover in my bed” he just snickered, before scanning the floor for some clothes that were non-sticky and non-Petes because Pete was _small_. He found some in the end and headed out the door. 

It took him a little longer than five minutes, partly because it was almost December and the weather was freezing, partly because apparently everyone in Jersey wanted to grocery shop at 2 pm on a Friday, and partly because on his way home Alicia called, telling that their teacher had firmly asked her to go over to Mikeys house after school and tell his ditchin’ ass that he had homework due to next week, and she laughed the entire time which made it harder to understand what she was saying.

 

When he finally got home, he almost walked pasted the well-known car that stood next to his moms in the driveway, and he felt his heart grow like ten sizes and he hurried inside. He had completely forgotten that Gerard had said he might be home this weekend in his sex-marathon, and that was probably a really lousy move but hey, he was to ecstatic to care right now.

“Gerard?” he called as soon as he’d opened the front door, and he found his brother standing in the kitchen with a mug of coffee tightly clenched in his hands, with a completely mortified look on his face that made Mikey snicker a little. “Um, everything okay?” 

“Y’know, you could’ve told to expect naked soccer players with filthy mouths making coffee in my house when I come home for the weekend. He thought it was you who came home. He said things I hoped I’d never have to hear in my life, y’know, before he discovered that it was me” he said, still with wide eyes and took a sip of his coffee. Mikey actually snorted in laugher at this. 

When Mikey had gotten himself under control he went over and hugged Gerard, still giggling though. “Oh my God, Gee, I’m sorry. I’ve missed you”  
At this Gerard smiled too. “Yeah, I’ve missed you too. He’s nice though, your boyfriend” he mumbled, as if he wasn’t really sure how the words was supposed to exit his mouth. Mikey giggled again. 

“It’s kind of unfair, it took me like three weeks to get him naked and you get the full first hand impression” he stuttered before breaking down in laughing fits again and Gerard just looked at him with a cocked eyebrow, like the actual child Mikey was, bending over and keeping his hands on his stomach while trying to catch his breath between giggling. He supposed it was the kind of effect Pete had on him. He never laughed or smiled or was this happy (or childish) after Gerard left, until Pete came along, but it was just the funniest thing to him that Gerard, who was probably the most awkward person when it came to nakedness, had walked in on his naked boyfriend making coffee. 

“He has a _genital piercing_ , Mikey. Where did you even _find_ this guy?” Gerard uttered and he sounded kind of concerned. It was kind of understandable though, the last time he’d seen Mikey he had been this semi-depressed, indifferent and very introvert teenage boy who had only ever made out with Alicia Simmons, which they had pretty quickly stopped doing again. He guessed that it probably seemed like he had been very sort of liberated when Gerard hadn’t witnessed the whole process. It still didn’t make the whole thing less funny. 

“At the side of the road, literally” Pete chimed in, entering the kitchen, this time dressed though. “My knight in a shining Ford Escort” 

He was much less awkward than what Mikey had expected from a guy who had just met Gerard while being naked. “Guess there’s no need for introducing you, then” he said sarcastically and both of them shook their heads. “I’ve got poptarts, by the way” 

“Oh thank God, I’m _starving_ , does you and mom ever even grocery shop?” Gerard asked, and Mikey  kind of shrugged. 

“Not really. We drink a lot of coffee” 

“That’s why you’re both so fucking skinny. Food exists, y’know. When is mom home by the way?” Gerard asked curiously, and Mikey had to think for a while, because he wasn’t really sure about her working hours, other than there was a lot of them. He had mostly retrieved to his bed by the time she was home and she was out the door before he ever woke up in the morning. There was actually a lot of days where they hardly saw each other, considering that they lived together. 

“About 8, I think” 

“Do you know if she’s planning dinner? Otherwise we could cook something, or like, I could attempt while you stay as far away from any kitchen device we own as you can” 

“Hey, I’m not that bad at it” Mikey argued and crossed his arms. “I can handle the coffeemaker” 

“I can help” Pete offered. “I had a bit of gastronomy in Chicago” 

Mikey raised his eyebrows at him. Pete had never really struck him as the household type. “Really?” 

“Totally. I can make a killer spaghetti” 

“You’re gonna have to prove that, cityboy” Gerard said skeptically and Pete just flashed him a grin. Mikey was maybe so happy that he could die.

♢

The afternoon went by, and the three of them drove down to the closest supermarket and got what they need for making some sort of decent dinner. And then Alicia came over with some of Mikey stuff that he needed for school, and even though she had promised the teacher to yell at him for her, she didn’t, and he was kind of grateful for that. Alicia was still the scariest person he knew when she was angry. She also spent like forty minutes laughing when Mikey told her about Gerard and Petes small encounter earlier that day, and then another ten when she discovered that they were actually going to try and cook themselves. 

Around seven, when it started to smell burnt, she went out in the kitchen where Gerard and Pete had gotten over their awkwardness towards each other, based on the fact that neither of them would allow Mikey to help just because he maybe had almost set something on fire like, once or twice before. Alicia made Pete go in and join Mikey on the couch that was currently residence for people who was banned from the kitchen, because as she said, that wasn’t how you used a stove. Pete scowled at her for a while before accepting his faith and letting her take over his place. 

“Sorry I permanently scarred your brother by the way” Pete said with a smile to Mikey as they sat next to each other on the sofa, close enough that their thighs touched and fingers entwined. 

“What did you even say to him? He looked like he’d seen someone get executed” Mikey snickered and Pete leaned into him, so close to his ear that his lips almost touched Mikeys earlobe. 

“I said,” he whispered and Mikey shivered. “That I kind of want you to fuck me tonight. Like, downright, hot and sweaty, you-on-top-of-me fucking. Or I could sit on top of you, while you’d watch me. And I could put my mouth on every inch of your body” 

Mikeys breath hitched, and he would’ve laughed at the fact that Gerard had accidentally heard Pete say this, but it was also kind of the hottest thing he’d heard anyone say, like ever, including porn probably, and he had to use all his brain power to restrain himself from just pushing Pete over and taking off his clothes with his teeth or something. He really hadn’t capacity left for laughing. 

“Really?” 

“Mmmh” Pete panted quietly, and smoothly put his hand on Mikey thigh. He was most definitely trying to kill Mikey right now.

♢

When Donna Way came home from work that night, she found a nicely set table and a somewhat nice dinner that was only slightly burned, mostly thanks to Alicia and her determination to not let anyone other than maybe Gerard near something that was supposed to be edible afterwards. No one except Mikey really believed that Pete had actually been good at gastronomy back in Chicago. And the house was also full of four laughing and chatting teenagers, very different from every other night where there usually wasn’t really anybody present when she came home. She smiled a lot, and she kind of looked how Mikey felt. Alicia had stayed for dinner, mostly because she had been responsible for ninety percent of the meal, but also because it was snowing heavily and she didn’t really feel like going home, and Pete stayed because it was like the first time they’d ever ate a meal at Mikeys dinner table, and because when didn’t he stay over. 

Mikey was sent headfirst into another laughing fit when D’Arcy announced her presence by sneaking underneath the table and then jumping into Gerards lap and snatching some of his food off his plate, which caused him to make a shrieking noise in shock, that reminded Mikey a little of the one Pete had made when they were first introduced to the cat almost a month ago. 

“I forgot you have a cat now” he said, holding a hand to his heart while calming down again. 

“Yeah, I seem to forget that too. It’s evil, I tell you, but Mikey doesn’t believe me. He's in love with it or something” Pete said dramatically, while D’Arcy purred in Gerards lap. 

“You’re gonna become one of those crazy old ladies who yells at teenagers and is married to their cat” Gerard joked, and Pete looked very displeased. 

“Not if I marry him first” he said and then Mikey blushed a lot and stared at his food. 

 “Oh, is it your cat?” Donna said, and tilted her head. “I thought she was just a stray. She is so kind, she always sits with me when I have my morning coffee” 

“See, you two are just overreacting” Mikey smirked and looked at his brother and Pete again, and Alicia laughed. 

“Listen to yourselves, you’re afraid of a _cat_. I’m seriously doubting that you’re grown men” she mocked and Pete sent her a mean stare. 

“You’ve got your head in the right place, girl” Donna told her earnestly, and Alicia blushed a little. “You tell those boys off” 

Mikey rolled his eyes at his mom, and patted his thigh so the cat would make its way from Gerard, who still just stared oddly down at it, and over to Mikey who scratched her behind her ear and gave her a few more pieces of his food. 

When he looked up again, the cat drowsy in his lap, Gerard and Pete was in some intense conversation about which bands should headline in case Woodstock was held again, while his mom was telling Alicia some story about when she was young and smacked a guy in a bar for being rude, and Mikey felt really lightheaded and bubbly inside, because here was his best friend, his brother, his boyfriend and his mom and they all got along and later tonight he was going to do really dirty stuff to said boyfriend, who apparently was a lot more serious than Mikey had first thought, and on Monday his teacher would kick his ass for not showing up today, but it was okay because he had a lot of other and better things to care about, and all of them was right beside him right now, and he didn’t really need anything else. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ~ end ~
> 
> wow i actuall finished it after all, and the last part got really stupid and long and idk, but there was alot of smut and alot of fluff and i hope you like it. feedback is always appreciated, so yeah.  
> im gonna read it through either later today or tomorrow to correct grammar, so until then there might be a few mistakes.


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